Tea and Crumpets, Except Not
by AngelQueen
Summary: Zoë decides to shadow Allison at Global Dynamics for a school project. However, when an explosion leaves them buried under tons of concrete, they are given a chance to talk and bond in a way they never considered before. Set before Season Two.


This was written for the first Eureka Gen Ficathon on LiveJournal about a year ago and foolish me, I never got around to posting it here. Enjoy!

The continuous hammering rocked the enormous pile of rubble and when a particularly large piece of jagged concrete fell just a few feet away, Zoë couldn't restrain a gasp of fear. Sitting against the wall farthest away from the concrete blocks wasn't doing too much to keep her from getting showered by tiny shards of cement coming from both the blocks and the ceiling above.

Slim but toned arms tightened around her shoulders and pulled her close. Zoë found she didn't mind and let Allison hug her, and didn't analyze it when she ended up returning the embrace. She hadn't been held like this in a long time.

Neither one said anything, but she couldn't help but think they were beyond that at this point. Either they were going to get out, or their would-be rescuers were going to kill them. Not much else to say after waiting for that. And besides, her head was hurting way too much to talk right now.

Zoë hadn't really thought her project was going to end up like this, which was a really stupid thing. This was Eureka. She should have expected _something_ to go wrong.

**Fifteen hours ago**

"Good morning, Zoë."

Zoë moaned and buried her face in her pillow, blocking out the cheery voice that greeted her.

"It's seven-oh-five. Miss Blake is due to arrive at eight-fifteen to pick you up."

Oh yeah, right, her project for her Practical Applications class. Since practically everyone in class was likely to end up following in their parents' or guardians' footsteps, the class had to pick out four people in Eureka to work shadow for a day. Zoë had decided to go with Allison, Henry, Jo, and one of the other scientists at Global Dynamics. It had either been that guy, or Nathan Stark, and she wasn't sure her dad could have handled that one, not to mention herself. The man was the ultimate pain in the ass.

But it was still too early. With another groan, Zoë lifted her head from the warmth of her pillow. "Whose idea was it to start the work day so early?"

"Unknown," SARAH answered. "Shall I open up a search?"

"No, never mind. I'm up." She dragged herself across the floor to her door. Opening it, she was immediately hit with the smell of coffee. That meant her dad was already up. And if there was coffee in the picture, it meant he wasn't eating beer and cereal. Zoë shuddered as she walked into the bathroom.

Fifty minutes later, Zoë came down into the kitchen to find her dad sitting at the island, finishing off the last of his breakfast. Bacon and something else, from the smell of it. He looked up at her and said, "Hey, morning."

"Morning." She moved over to the food dispenser. "SARAH, breakfast please," she said.

"Would you like an egg omelet, or scrambled eggs?"

"Scrambled. And toast."

"Bacon or sausage?"

"Sausage."

Within moments, Zoë had her breakfast and joined her dad at the island. Just as she started digging into her eggs, he commented over his coffee cup, "So, you're following Allison around today?"

She nodded. "Yeah, she's showing me what she does everyday." Zoë grinned. "I think first on the list is coffee at Café Diem with the Sheriff to discuss," she paused, holding up her fingers and mimicking quotes, "town operations."

Jack glared at her good-naturedly, and then rolled his eyes. "Just don't make a nuisance of yourself. I have to work with her."

"If you call making goo-goo—"

"Being a smartass can get you in trouble you know."

Zoë just shrugged and kept eating. Even if she had to get up early, it was still a good morning if she got to torment the big bad sheriff of Eureka. It was good to be Robin Hood sometimes. Kept his ego in line.

Allison arrived right on time at eight-fifteen. It was pouring down rain, making the ground outside the bunker a veritable mud pit. Luckily, SARAH warned her and she was able to grab a pair of boots from her closet. She put her shoes in a bag, ready to exchange them once they got going.

Zoë slipped into the car, glad that her hair hadn't gotten wet. "Morning, Allison."

The cocoa-skinned woman smiled at her. "Morning, Zoë. You ready?"

"Yeah. Dad said he'd see us at Café Diem." Zoë didn't restrain a smirk when she saw a faint blush stain the agent's cheeks.

"Oh, right. He buys me coffee," Allison said as she pulled away from the bunker.

"The coffee's free."

Allison nodded, but then changed the subject. "I'm touched you asked to shadow me, Zoë, but you do know that I won't be able to show you everything, right? Some of what I work with is still highly classified."

Zoë nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. I just need to be able to show what it's like to work for this place on your end."

**Thirteen hours ago**

Zoë clutched her cappuccino as Allison drove them out of Eureka and toward Global Dynamics. She'd just spent the last hour watching Allison perform the first part of her job, serving as liaison between Eureka and Global Dynamics. She'd brought along the recorder her teacher had assigned to her so that Allison could tell her in words that Zoë could use later when putting her project together.

"Everyday, I take an hour to hear the status of the town from Sheriff Carter," Allison was speaking as Zoë kept the recorder going. "Sometimes it lasts a little longer if there is a crisis, sometimes not. Still, the government does its best to provide the most comfortable environment possible for the people who live and work in Eureka."

Zoë nodded understandingly and hid her smirk behind her coffee cup. It had been kind of funny to watch Allison and her dad try and be professional in front of her. Calling each other 'Agent Blake' and 'Sheriff Carter' as she sat and listened to them, taking notes, had been like watching a farce. As if Zoë—and everyone else in Eureka—didn't know that they'd been making eyes at each other since the beginning.

After about twenty minutes, they made it to Global Dynamics. At the gate just beyond the broken bridge security illusion, Allison gave Zoë her visitor's identification.

"You have clearance to see certain areas of Sections One through Four," Allison explained as Zoë clipped it to her clothing. "There are some projects going on that are classified in there that we'll have to skip over."

When they finally got inside the building, Allison said they had one stop to make before they started her usual rounds around the building.

"Stark's office?" Zoë asked.

"I always check in with Nathan every morning to make sure there isn't something about to melt down in Section Five or anywhere else in this place," Allison told her while they moved through the halls.

Eventually they walked up a flight of steps and Zoë found herself in an office walled by glass and with a view of a large room full of desks and computers. Glancing away from the view, Zoë found herself meeting the sharp gaze of Nathan Stark.

"Allison," he greeted without looking away from Zoë.

"Nathan."

"Is this Bring a Kid to Work day?" he asked flippantly, leaning back in his leather chair and tapping his fingers together. "You should have brought Kevin. We could have had a lot more fun."

Zoë glared at him. She'd heard enough of the smartass remarks he so often threw at her dad, but the biggest difference was that she had even less patience for it. Instead of snapping at him, however, she just smiled sweetly. "No, this is part of a project for school. I had to choose four people to shadow. Allison's the first, and I have Henry, Jo, and Doctor Thomas."

"Thomas in Section Four?"

"Yeah, I had to choose between her and you."

Zoë watched in satisfaction as Stark's eyes narrowed and then turned away.

Allison, on the other hand, looked a little exasperated. "Are you genetically predisposed to disliking anyone with the last name Carter?" she asked him.

All he said was, "Well, like father, like daughter. Not my fault."

Allison rolled her eyes and changed the subject. Zoë settled in and listened carefully as the two adults went through a list of topics, some of which Zoë would get to see on her tour.

**Nine hours ago**

"… and we're hoping to increase crop production in grassland climates by twelve percent."

Zoë struggled not to yawn. This was the third project she and Allison had been presented with, and she was fast becoming tired of listening to ways to increase food manufacturing.

When they finally finished with Section Three and moved onto an elevator to go down to Section Four, Zoë couldn't restrain a small sigh of relief.

"Bored?"

Zoë looked up quickly and felt her face heat at Allison's amused expressions. "Sorry, I—"

"It's all right, Zoë," the older woman assured her. She smiled. "I get a little tired of hearing about the same thing three different ways too. But Section Four's got some more exciting projects and you'll get a more entertaining look at what we do here."

The elevator stopped and the doors opened, revealing a long hallway identical to the ones Zoë had seen in Sections One, Two, and Three.

"So," she asked, "what am I looking at here?"

They walked along, passing by a few doors and even walking alongside a man and woman clad in pristine lab coats. Allison opened her mouth to answer, but she never got the chance to say anything.

The explosion happened in front of them and for just a second, no one there even moved. Then when a second followed along in the wake of the first, everyone began to react.

"Everyone get to the stairs," Allison shouted above the sound of the loud blasts, shoving people along as they came stumbling out of doors. Zoë did as Allison did, nudging people along, vaguely noting the blood that was spattered on some of those lab coats.

A third explosion. Zoë glanced up toward the ceiling and saw huge slabs of concrete about to come down on the head of an injured scientist, who was hobbling on an injured ankle. Not thinking at all, just reacting, she leapt toward the man, taking no heed of Allison's shouting for her to stop. She grabbed the man and dragged him forward, ignoring his cry of pain. Allison also appeared next to Zoë, ready to grab her as well. But the dust was turning into fragments, and the fragments into larger slabs of concrete. With no other choice, Zoë gave the injured man one final shove forward toward the other scientists waiting.

Neither she nor Allison had time to follow. Zoë didn't remember anything after that for a while.

**Eight hours ago**

"Zoë, are you all right? Zoë? Zoë!"

Zoë moaned as the loud, commanding voice cut through the exploding pain in her head.

"Zoë, are you all right?"

Zoë opened her eyes, only to be confronted with complete darkness. "Al… Allison? What's… what's going on? I can't see." And it hurt to talk. It hurt to blink. It hurt to even think at this point. Her head felt like it had been smashed repeatedly into concrete or something.

"I know," Allison said. "I can't either. The explosion has sealed us off in here."

Wincing, Zoë felt around with her hands. She felt the solid ground beneath her and a wall behind her, and pushed feebly to sit herself up. That didn't go over well as a new pain made its presence clearly known in her leg. She couldn't restrain a sob.

"Zoë?"

"M-My leg," she whimpered. "I think I did something to it."

"Which one?" she asked.

"Right."

Zoë could feel Allison's hands sliding down her body to her leg, pressing gently. She gasped when the older woman hit a particular spot. Allison concentrated there, but Zoë's eyes were starting to droop a little. She gave her head a little shake, trying to shrug off the desire to close her eyes.

"I can't tell if it's broken. I don't feel any bones sticking through your skin," Allison said at last.

"That's good," Zoë replied through clenched teeth. "What happened?"

Allison sighed and Zoë could hear her move, the broken fragments shifting beneath her movement. "I'm not sure. Nathan didn't give me much information about the latest projects in Section Four. All I know is that Fargo has a new project down here involving some type of fuel."

Zoë frowned. She'd gotten enough from her dad's complaining to know that Fargo was often behind the crises at Global Dynamics in one form or another. "I'm gonna kill Fargo," she muttered.

Allison snorted. "Take a number. I think the line starts behind Nathan."

Zoë shifted again, but then asked, "Can you help me sit up?"

Concern filled the other woman's voice. "You shouldn't move."

"Maybe, but my head's pounding. Maybe it'll help if I sit up." It took some doing, but Zoë managed to rest herself against the wall behind her without jarring her leg too much. Still, her head felt like one giant throbbing wound.

She heard Allison move and settle in off to her left. "I imagine they'll notice we're gone pretty quickly, once they take a head count. The scanners within the building should be able to pick up our life signs, so they shouldn't have too much trouble finding us."

"Great, now if only my head felt the same way."

"Your head?"

"Yeah," Zoë admitted, "it hurts like hell."

Fingers quickly began running over her scalp and she jerked away when the pain grew worse. "Ow!"

"Sorry, Zoë. I can't tell for sure, but you might have a concussion. To be safe, I need you to stay awake," Allison said firmly. "Can you do that for me?"

Zoë grunted. "Sure. It's so dark I can't see my own hand in front of me; I've been in an explosion. What's not to make me fall asleep?"

**Six hours ago**

"Zoë, stay awake."

After two hours, Zoë was really getting sick of hearing Allison saying that to her every five minutes. "I'm trying," she snapped. "I tend to nod off when I'm bored witless."

Allison sighed from where she was seated to her left. "Talk to me then, so I know you're awake."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Anything, just keep talking."

Zoë smirked. "All right then, when are you planning to go on a real date with—"

"Next question," Allison interrupted, her tone brooking no argument. Zoë just laughed, but then immediately regretted it when the pain in both her head and her leg spiked.

"Okay," she said, breathing heavily. "Where you from? How's Kevin these days? How did you end up with a guy like Stark?"

There were several moments of silence and Zoë wondered if Allison was going to answer at all. Then she began to speak, her voice quiet.

"I was born and raised in Arizona, my parents' only child. We traveled a lot, especially when I became involved in various clubs and organizations. I got my PhD at Harvard, and did my residency at John Hopkins, where I met Kevin's father, Jeremy Simms."

Zoë was surprised. She hadn't expected Allison to say anything about Kevin's mysterious dad. As far as she knew, the guy wasn't in the picture, but it wasn't as though anyone talked about him. If her dad knew anything, he certainly wasn't talking about it to anyone. She continued to listen.

"We hit it off. He was a psychiatrist who occasionally did some work at John Hopkins, but mainly stuck to his private practice. We got along very well from the start and suddenly he found excuses to come around more often, until he asked me out.

"We got married a year later. Everyone thought it was a bit fast, especially given the difference in our ages. I was twenty-six, he was thirty-nine." A sad, almost dreamy, quality slipped into Allison's voice as Zoë listened raptly. "Not long after our honeymoon, I was approached by the DOD to start working for them. I think they had me in mind for Eureka, but that didn't come until later."

She stopped for several moments, and Zoë couldn't resist asking, "Was he also asked?"

"No, just me. Working there meant commutes to D.C., but Jeremy agreed it was a great opportunity for me. It went on for about a year until I found out I was pregnant."

"Kevin?"

"Yes. Jeremy and I knew this would mean changes. I was willing to give up working with the DOD, but it would take some time for me to extract myself. When I was four months along, I was making one of my last visits to D.C. Jeremy… decided to surprise me by driving down. There was an accident."

What could Zoë say to that? This wasn't exactly what she had in mind. She wondered if Allison even meant to tell her all of this.

"After… after the funeral, I decided to stay with the DOD. I wanted to work, anything to keep my mind off of what had happened. So, I stayed, and they offered me the position in Eureka. I didn't hesitate and I took it."

Allison stopped then, and Zoë decided not to push further in asking again how Stark had come into her life. She didn't think she needed to know.

"I'm sorry," she couldn't resist saying, feeling incredibly awkward. "I didn't mean—"

Allison cut her off. "It's all right, Zoë," she said. "I don't talk about him as often as I should. It isn't fair to Kevin that his father should be forgotten."

Well, Zoë thought after several moments of silence, that confession was more than she thought she'd get when she had flippantly asked her questions.

**Four hours ago**

They made small talk as the time passed, and Zoë was careful not to ask any further deep questions. In fact, she used her project to keep herself awake, something that was growing more and more difficult to do, and asked more about Allison's work. She only hoped she would remember if—when—they got out of here.

"What made you decide to come back to Eureka?"

Zoë froze and then groaned inwardly. Beverly had asked her this more than once in their sessions. So far, Zoë had been able to avoid answering it by bringing up some other problem or incident. And there always was one. But now, she didn't think that would work. Allison had answered her honestly, something she rarely expected from adults anymore, how could she do anything less.

Zoë shrugged, even though Allison couldn't see her do so. "I liked it here, despite getting walked in on by big, burly Marines while I was getting a bath and nearly dying because someone decided to build some overblown time machine thingy."

She hesitated, but Allison prodded her a little, just as she had done the same earlier. Continuing, she said, "I was about nine when Dad got even busier with his job, so I turned to Mom. I was angry for a long time. Before that, Dad may have had a lot to do, but he was still home nearly every night for dinner. Then that changed and I didn't understand why. Mom got angry too, though it took her a while longer."

Zoë snorted. "I suppose she got tired of being a single parent who couldn't control me when I started doing stuff. Not that I cared much. I already knew I had her attention, but I wanted Dad's. And I finally got it when we ended up here."

A moment of silence, and then Allison asked, "So you came back so you wouldn't lose his attention?"

"Yeah. I only have to call Mom or write her an email to get her to talk to me, but Dad's a lot harder. Plus, if I didn't, we'd probably end up total strangers and I'd have even worse problems to talk about to a shrink ten, twenty years down the road. Probably best to get it over with now with Beverly instead of waiting."

Allison laughed.

**One hour ago**

They kept talking, moving on to lighter subjects like their favorite meals at Café Diem and Taggart's continuing crusade to capture Lojak, when suddenly a devastatingly-loud pounding assaulted their ears. Zoë jumped, causing the pain to heighten in her leg. The sound also increased the pain in her head, and a new wave of exhaustion swept over her. Still, she covered her ears and shouted, "What the hell is that?"

She felt Allison move more rather than heard her move. After a moment, she replied loudly, "I think they're trying to dig us out."

"It sounds like a jackhammer!"

Zoë might have continued to complain had she not been pelted by a plethora of dust and concrete fragments. Instinctively, she looked up only to have that dust hit her straight in the face. "Ow!"

"Zoë?"

"Dust," Zoë told Allison, rubbing her eyes to try and alleviate the sting.

"It's them. They're causing a lot of movement by trying to get to us."

Zoë thought about saying something about them trying to kill them instead of saving them, but she just didn't have the energy. She was so tired. Talking to Allison had kept her distracted, but now she was fast becoming used to this steady rhythm. She could already feel her eyes beginning to droop, and she fought it as best she could, blinking fiercely.

Zoë didn't see light for another hour. A tiny, miniscule shaft of light, but it was probably the most beautiful thing Zoë had ever seen. She moaned a little with relief.

Allison saw it too. She carefully unwound her arms and pushed herself to her feet. They had been sitting against the wall, as far away from where their rescuers as possible. It hadn't saved them from being covered with dust and pelted occasionally with concrete. Zoë imagined drowsily that they were both a mess.

Zoë watched Allison move toward the light. "We're here," she called. "We're here!"

"Allison?" It was Henry.

"Henry! You better have a medical team ready. Zoë's hurt."

"What?" Another voice. Even through the growing haze, Zoë could still recognize it. "Zoë?"

"Da… Dad?"

"Zoë, hang on! We're almost through. We're coming!"

The light was growing bigger, but Zoë's eyes were sliding shut.

"Zoë!" Now Allison was next to her again. "Zoë, stay awake, just a little bit longer! We're almost out!"

She tried to, she really did. The last thing she remembered was the medical team surrounding her and trying to put her on a stretcher. She couldn't see her father though.

"Whe's Da,'" Zoë slurred just before she lost the battle.

When Zoë woke up, she felt great. Better than great. She felt ready to take a trip to Graceland. Or someplace. Gettysburg, maybe?

The room was mostly dark, lit only by a light coming in through the door, but it was enough for her to spot the two figures asleep on the couch pushed up against the wall. Zoë looked closely, and giggled when she saw it was her dad and Allison. He was leaning back, his head resting against the back of the couch, while Allison was nestled against his shoulder, held close by his arm.

Aw, aren't they cute? She thought just before she fell back asleep.

When she woke up again, her thoughts weren't so all over the place (Graceland? As if.). The first thing Zoë knew was that she was thirsty. The second was that she was hungry. The third was that her dad was sitting next to her bed, eating something that smelled absolutely divine.

Zoë opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was so dry that the only sound that came out was a thin, hoarse moan. Still, it was enough to get her dad's attention.

He'd had his legs propped up on the right corner of her bed while holding his plate up to his chest so he wouldn't make a mess. The moment she'd alerted him to her conscious status, however, his legs came down and his plate was practically tossed onto the table already full with a water bottle, pill bottles, and, to Zoë's mortification, a bedpan.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "You're awake!"

"Th… thirsty," she managed to get out. It was enough and he grabbed the water bottle, leaning the straw toward her mouth. Zoë immediately latched onto it with her lips and sucked the water in greedily. It felt like heaven.

When she finally let go of the straw and leaned back against the pillows, she asked, "Where's Allison? Is she okay?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah, she made it through with just some scrapes and bruises. She's investigating the explosion." Zoë watched his face darken. "It looks like it was a real accident, and it wasn't anyone's fault."

"So Stark can't kill Fargo for it? He must be disappointed."

"Mm hmm," he replied absently. He looked at her closely. "Zoë, I… I almost lost you," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Under other circumstances, she might have made some smartass remark, but not this time. One of the things that had terrified her when she had Allison had been stuck under all those rocks was that she might not see him again. Or her mom, or any of her friends. Her eyes stinging a little, she reached out and grabbed his hand.

"You didn't, though. I made it."

"The doctors told me that it was a miracle we didn't find you in a coma."

Zoë shuddered, but nodded. "Allison kept telling me to stay awake. We sat there and talked, which kept me from falling asleep."

He eyed her curiously. "What'd you talk about?"

She smirked. "Girl stuff. Do you really want to know the details?"

The look on his face was answer enough.


End file.
